So What Is A Commitment, Really?

A recent post on the GTD forums started me thinking about commitments.

We all have many ongoing projects. But what does “ongoing” really mean? Have we really committed to them? Or did we just put them on a list to remind us to get them done eventually?

I’m realizing that a lot of my own “active projects” are there to push myself to finish them. I haven’t truly committed to them, not deeply and seriously.

This is, perhaps, no revelation to many. That’s what commitment means, doesn’t it? To truly decide and agree internally to accomplish something.

I haven’t been. And many people don’t. We create lists and map out plans, but how many of those items have we deeply, seriously committed ourselves to completing?

There’s a problem here: we really can’t commit to a huge workload. You can’t fool your mind. If you try to commit to 50 things, your mind will start to drop the first few in the list the further you get.

The answer is, as usual, to simplify. Truly commit to a few things, and execute. Track the other things, and do them if you can. But choose a few things to deeply commit to.

And, please, choose important things.